Abel Tasman National Park
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
1
135
209
Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
Abel Tasman National Park - Moteuka,
New Zealand
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
This is New Zealands smallest national Park, undoubtly one of the most beautiful. We were so surprised, the scenery was exactly like that of Australia - Lush tropical vegetation and small inlets with white sandy beaches, the waters were so calm and clear it was unreal! There are lots of activities to do here, Kayaking is the most popular, as the weather wasnt so great though we decided that we would take a water taxi to Bark Bay and walk the 8 kms down to Torrent Bay before taking a water taxi back
Abel Tasman Water Taxis
.As it turned out thye day we had couldnt have been any better, the sun was shining and the skies were blue - it was beautiful. The water taxi is actually a speed boat, and we sat with the wind against our faces donning our yellow life jackets as the boat sped through the clear waters. Our first stop was the Split Apple Rock - actually not in the park itself but everyone detours there to see it - its very famous in Maori history. After that we sped up to Bark Bay, a huge sweeping bay backed by very green hillsides and calm waters around the bay, we started our walk along the Abel Tasman Track, first stop was a great lookout, which looked out over the coastline which by this stage was far below us, we continued on walking up at times a steep track which led along the coast and into the hills. We passed waterfalls and ferns and huge trees providing shelter from the hot sun - around lunchtime we realised that we hadnt bought any lunch along with us! (some things never change!), and as we were in a national park there were no shops (only Torrent Bay has permission for people to build - and as its so remote and expensive they are millionaires - no cafes for us!) we made do with our water which was more important than food anyway, and continued on stopping every now and again for beautiful views of the inlets and beaches.
We soon came upon a swing bridge, a woman was hyperventilating as we was about to cross, I swore that I wouldnt let myself get into a state and ignored the movement of the bridge and how high up it was and just walked straight across
Ali on the Swing bridge in Abel Tasman Park
! Eventually we came to Torrent Bay - which was as all of the bays were here - stunning. We sat in the sun for a while waiting for our water taxi to take us back to Marahau where we had left the car. Well, after all of the water taxis we have caught since this trip, and not missing one even in third world countries where nobody speaks much English we almost missed the one here in New Zealand! We were sitting on the beach waiting - a boat eventually started hovering out in the distance - we just thought that he would be coming into the beach and sat and waited - to cut a long story short - it was low tide, he couldnt come in any closer, we started wading through the waters - soaking wet jeans and all at this stage just as he started speeding off - some women on the beach called him and luckily for us he heard them!
How embarrasing is that - from all the boats we had to catch in Thailand especially we almost miss one here - it was a close call alright but we caught it! We were known on the boat as the lost couple! We were soon back in Marahau, where a tractor drove into the water and attatched the boat onto the back and drove us back to the centre where we had parked the car! Its all fun and games!
Hugs
Ali n Matt
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